How to act against ACTA

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Révision datée du 15 février 2012 à 10:23 par Axx (discussion | contributions)
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This page lists different ways to take action against ACTA right now and to learn more about this dangerous agreement.



Logo ACTA

ACTA is an ongoing multi-lateral trade agreement which threatens to change the Internet as we know it and puts fundamental freedoms at risk.

You will find on this page different ways you can act to defeat ACTA as a citizen.
So first of all, thanks, it's great that you *do* want to act!

So, what can you do?
There are many things you can do, from learning more about how ACTA works and how it puts the Internet and freedoms at risk to making yourself heard by European elected representatives. You can also write a song about how ACTA makes you feel, create a funny image macro (à la lolcat), organise an event at your school to discuss and inform, etcetera.

The main two things to do are contacting Members of the European Parliament and helping spread the word about ACTA.

To stay informed about ACTA, you can subscribe to:

Contact your Elected Representatives

Contacting your Elected Representatives is the most useful thing you can do right now, and until the final vote in the European Parliament.

We need to be ready to act at each step of the legislative process in the European Parliament. Each of these steps is an occasion for us to make ourselves heard against ACTA.

To be informed about the next steps to urge Members of the European Parliament to reject ACTA, send a blank email to NOtoACTA-subscribe@laquadrature.net to subscribe to our list. We won't use your email for anything else.

Next steps in the European Parliament

Most countries negotiating ACTA have already signed it, and the EU Member States have also recently signed ACTA.
But ACTA still needs to be presented to the European Parliament (EP) and if the European Parliament votes NO to ACTA and rejects it, this will deal a likely fatal blow to the treaty.

But before ACTA goes to vote before the whole of the European Parliament, several EP committees will be giving their opinion on the text, guiding the EP's final stance on ACTA.
This is why as citizens we must contact members of these committees to make sure they hear all about what is wrong with ACTA.

ACTA handcuffed world


  1. The International Trade INTA Committee of the European Parliament is the main committee working on ACTA.
  2. The Industry (ITRE), Civil Liberties (LIBE), Legal Affairs (JURI), and Development (DEVE) committees are also working on ACTA. They will first vote on their opinions after holding “exchange of views” on draft reports in the coming weeks.
  3. Opinions will then be sent to INTA to influence its final report, which will recommend the EU Parliament as a whole to reject or accept ACTA.
  4. The final, plenary vote by the EU Parliament on ACTA should be held no sooner than June.

The contents of INTA's report are therefore very important, and we need to make sure it reflects European citizens' legitimate concern about ACTA.

For more detailed information about the ACTA procedure in the European system, please see the procedure file.

Who to contact

Current main action: call members of the INTA committee to ask that their report on ACTA recommend the Parliament reject it, and to tell them about the dangers of ACTA.
The MEPs have been given a “fact-sheet” on ACTA's supposed inoffensiveness to reassure concerned citizens (that's you). You can find a debunking of these lies here.

!According to taz.de [1] e-mails to MEPs about ACTA will be moved to a spam folder. Use fax, snail mail or phone instead!

Contact the:

Right now, we need to contact members of the INTA committee. They are working on a report on ACTA, we must ensure it conveys all the the crucial issues raised by ACTA. Call them and tell what you think of ACTA and that you want their report to convey your opinion as a citizen.

You can also contact members of the LIBE committee, ITRE committee, JURI committee and DEVE committee committees to explain to them the many issues about ACTA and influence their respective reports.

In a few months, a large campaign to call all Members of the European Parliament will take place when ACTA reaches the plenary, currently late June to the best of our knowledge.
We will need to be as many as possible to call the Members of the European Parliament so they understand how important it is to European citizens that ACTA is rejected, and why it is so dangerous.

How to contact, what to say

For detailed arguments about the dangers of ACTA, you should read la Quadrature's analysis of ACTA's final version, it contains many strong arguments.

The MEPs have been given a “fact-sheet” on ACTA's supposed inoffensiveness to reassure concerned citizens (that's you). You can find a debunking of these lies here.

The “learn more” section below also contains useful information.

The main points are:

  • ACTA turns Internet companies (ISPs, service providers) into a private copyright police by forcing to take legal responsibility for what their users do online.
  • ACTA brings broad and dangerous criminal sanctions in loosely defined way.
  • ACTA bypasses democracy and opens the door to a parallel legislative process, which the European MPs should be particularly angry about.

If you're not comfortable with any of these arguments, don't give up. You still can ask what is the MEP's position on ACTA, and ask what are his/her arguments. Then, you can report it to La Quadrature. It help us targeting specific MEPs during the campaign.

How to call:

  1. First of all, get comfortable with the arguments (don't hesitate to try them out on your friends, your family etc.).
  2. Select any MEP from the one of the Committees working on ACTA (currently the INTA Committee) and dial their number.
    When you call, you will most likely reach a parliamentary assistant, they are usually bright and polite people, treat them accordingly.
  3. Being polite and calm, tell them about your concerns, asking them to take part in the parliamentary debates and to take a stand against ACTA.
  4. Rinse and repeat: pick another MEP's number and call them.

You should also call members of the LIBE, JURI and ITRE and DEVE committees and talk to them too.

If a question to which you don't have the answer comes up, don't worry. You are not expected to be an expert, only a concerned citizen.
Explain you will look it up, and call back with more information.

In general, don't hesitate to offer to call back with more information, to meet the MEP, to send documents, references, etc.
Sometimes, Parliamentary assistants will ask you to send an e-mail. Don't hesitate to call back later to check if they've read it and what they thought of it.

Example phone call

See an example phone call of how a conversation with an MEP assistant might go.

Upcoming main campaign

Once the different committees have given their opinion on ACTA, ACTA will be put to the vote before the whole of the European Parliament (also called a plenary vote).
We won't know exactly what day the plenary vote is long before it happens, as the plenary schedule is made public only a few days/weeks in advance. We must therefore stay vigilant.

As soon as we know, in the weeks before ACTA is voted, as many people as possible must call the Members of the European Parliament to tell them why ACTA is dangerous, why it is a denial of democracy, and that they must reject it.

To be informed when this final and most important part of the campaign starts, send a blank email to NOtoACTA-subscribe@laquadrature.net to subscribe to our list. We won't use your email for anything else.

Spread the message

Another important and complimentary way to act against ACTA is to inform people, making sure as many people as possible know about ACTA and how bad it is. It may sound obvious, but people can only want to act against ACTA if they are aware of its dangers.

Learn more

You can learn more about ACTA and it's dangers to our freedom at http://lqdn.fr/acta

You should also read our counter-arguments to the Commission's disinformation about ACTA, it answers most arguments that you might encounter by those defending ACTA.

You can also read la Quadrature's analysis of ACTA's final version and see an overview of criticisms against ACTA.

EDRi has also done a series of fact-sheets about specific aspects of ACTA: http://www.edri.org/ACTA_Week

The following resources are helpful in better understanding ACTA:

Inform

You can spread these resources far and wide via

  • Twitter,
  • Facebook,
  • Google+,
  • mailing lists,
  • email,
  • forums,
  • your blog, etc.

Refer people to la Quadrature's file on ACTA

Show people the NO to ACTA video

  • You can embed the video everywhere:
    • Use the following html code to insert the main version of the video
<iframe src="http://mediakit.laquadrature.net/embed/716?size=medium" 
style="width: 640px; height: 500px; border: 0; overflow: hidden"></iframe>
    • Or go to this page to find the code to embed other versions of the video in English, and to this page to embed versions in French.
    • To embed the Spanish subtitled version of the video for example, use this code:
<iframe src="http://mediakit.laquadrature.net/embed/716?size=medium&sub=es_ES" 
style="width: 640px; height: 500px; border: 0; overflow: hidden"></iframe>

The videos are released under a permissive and freedom-granting Creative Commons licence, so you don't have to ask to use them. :)

88x31.png

Use, share, remix this flyer

Use our No to ACTA flyer for demonstrations, informative actions, and share it, remix it and help translate it!

Use your own words, pictures, sounds to talk about ACTA

Creating more art and expressing oneself is another powerful way to inform other people.
The power of art to explain and touch people is very strong, so this is a great way to act against ACTA if you enjoy writing, drawing, painting, making music, etc.


Here are some ideas.

You can:

  • Write an article on your blog,
  • Write an article for your school, college/university or company newspaper
  • Write to your newspapers asking why they aren't talking more about ACTA and telling them about ACTA
  • Create more videos, films, pictures, paintings against either the whole of ACTA or specific parts of the agreement
    • For instance, you can create banners, buttons, illustrations against ACTA (using images from the videos if you want) that others can use in their signatures, as avatars, to illustrate their blog articles, newspaper articles, etc.
    • If you do so, please post a link to your banner here.
  • People can also remix and reshape the videos to make them their own and give them a new life.
    • For instance, to the right here is a cool remix of the NO to ACTA video with Robocopyright:

Web applet against ACTA

An (animated interactive) javascript / css / html applet to add (as HTML code) to blogs, sites, etc. to

  • help raise awareness about ACTA
  • serve as an alert box

Looks like this: Actacreanims.jpg

See in action (mouse pointer sensitive) on these blogs/sites: http://creanims.blogspot.com/ and http://baazar.free.fr/

HTML code to include anywhere, on blog post, articles, etc.:

<script src="http://code.jquery.com/jquery-latest.js">
</script>
<script src="http://ajax.googleapis.com/ajax/libs/jqueryui/1.8/jquery-ui.min.js">
</script>
<script src="http://baazar.free.fr/blogspotjs.js">
</script>

<link href="http://baazar.free.fr/blogspotcss.css" rel="stylesheet" type="text/css"></link>

<br />
<div id="cadre-menu">
 <div id="bordure-menu">
    <img src="http://baazar.free.fr/img/ACTA_ANIM_FR.gif" width="125" height="125" />
<ul>
   <li><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/317777628260945/" target="_blank">Manifs</a></li>
      <li><a href="https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/Comment_agir_contre_ACTA" target="_blank">Agir</a></li>
      <li><a href="https://www.laquadrature.net/fr/d-montage-des-mensonges-de-la-commission-europ-enne-sur-acta" target="_blank">infos</a></li>   
</ul>
      Mise à jour : 31/01/12 :: 21H<br /><br />
      <a href="https://www.laquadrature.net/wiki/How_to_act_against_ACTA#Web_applet_against_ACTA" target="_blank"><font color="#0066FF" style="text-decoration:none">Insérer ce message sur votre site, votre blog, etc.</font></a>
  </div>
 <div id="bouton-menu">
 </div>
</div>

(remember to update links and informations)

More Ways to help

Translate the videos into your language

While many languages have already been covered, you can be part of subtitling effort!
Go to the following EtherPad to see if the NO to ACTA videos are already translated to your language, and if the translation have been turned into a .srt subtitle file: http://pad.lqdn.fr/p/trad-video-acta

Send your synchronized subtitle files to contact@laquadrature.net.

Organise events

  • Organise public events at your school, university, work place, etc.
    • Organise a discussion about ACTA, linking it to your classes or your activity
    • Show the NO to ACTA video

Publicly take a stand

  • If you are part of an NGO, consider publicly denouncing ACTA, and telling your members about ACTA's dangers.
  • If you are a well-known person or celebrity, you can also use your following to inform people about ACTA and denounce it.

Support la Quadrature du Net

If you can afford it, financial support is of course greatly appreciated.

You can make a donation to help La Quadrature keep on fighting ACTA and act on the other dossiers it works on.

http://lqdn.fr/support

Translate this page into your language

To help other people from different parts of the world act against ACTA, you can help translate this page.

Remember to always use the English version as the source for your translation, as it is the most up to date version.

For collaborative translation and easy proofreading and correction, you can use an EtherPad such as http://pad.lqdn.fr/p/How-to-act-against-ACTA-LANGUAGE

ie: https://pad.lqdn.fr/p/How_to_act_against_ACTA_es

Once translated, create a new page on the wiki with your translated text, and add a link to your language to the top of this page.
(You need an account to create a page on the wiki, open editing is disabled for spam protection.)


Thanks for your help everyone :)

Together, we can do amazing things! Like defeat ACTA!